... and at last the
glassy walls, where each bulbous irregularity shone red with reflected
light, moved slowly past. And, after more eons of time, a rocky floor
rose slowly to meet him.

His body crashed gently; he was sprawled face downward on stone that
was smooth and cold. The restraining arms no longer touched him.

He lay motionless for some time, his mind as stunned and
uncomprehending as if he had truly crashed to death upon that rocky
floor. Then, at last, he forced his reluctant nerves and muscles to
turn his body till he lay face upward.

Darkness wrapped him as if it were the soft swathing of some black
cocoon. The world about him was at first a place of utter night-time
blackness; and then, far above him, there shone a single star ...
until that feeble candle-gleam, too, was snuffed out.

A hand was gripping his shoulder; it seemed urging him to arise. He
felt each separate finger--long, slender, like bands of steel. The
nail at each finger-end was more nearly a claw, the whole hand a thin,
clutching thing like the foot of some giant ape. And, even as he
shrank involuntarily from that touch, Rawson wondered how the creature
could reach out and grip him so surely in the dark. But he came to
his feet in response to that urging hand.

The night was suddenly sibilant with eery, whistling voices. They came
from all sides at once; they threw themselves back and forth in
endless echoes. To Rawson it was only a confused medley of conflicting
sounds in which no one voice was clear. But the creature that held him
must have understood, for he heard him reply in a sharp, piercing
tone, half whistle, half shriek.

* * * * *

What had happened? Where was he? What was this thing that pushed him,
stumbling, along through the dark? With all his tumultuous questioning
he knew only one thing definitely: that it would be of no use to
struggle. He was as helpless as any trapped animal.

He was inside the earth, of course; he had fallen he had no least idea
how far; and, in some strange manner, this long-armed thing had
supported him and eased him gently down. But what it meant or what lay
ahead were matters too obscure for him to try to see clearly.

He held his hands protectingly before him while the talons gripping
into his shoulder hurried him along. He stumbled awkwardly as his foot
struck an obstruction. He would have fallen but for the grip that held
him erect.

For that creatur